The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Farmers aim for zero waste
The team behind successful farming business Westerton Farmers near Laurencekirk in Aberdeenshire have launched their second farm shop, this time with food and plastic waste in mind.
Opening its doors last weekend Farm to Table, which is based a few miles down the road from the Cairnton Farm, has been in the works since late 2019.
With coronavirus restrictions now easing, it is now fully operational and the new premises will give the team’s original farm shop, the Spud Hut, a much-needed rest.
Having boomed in popularity during the pandemic of the past 12 months which has seen consumers’ behaviour changing as more people focused on shopping locally, Fiona Smith, one of the co-owners of family-run Westerton Farmers is ecstatic to finally see her year-long project take shape.
While the Spud Hut will remain at the farm premises at Cairnton, the new store, which is a renovated farm building, will feature a much bigger selection of locally sourced goods, and will showcase a wide range of vegetables, as well as boasting a host of refillery dispensers.
The idea of the concept is for customers to bring their own reusable containers and fill them with the goods they want to buy.
Customers will weigh their container, fill it with items including pasta, rice, oils and weigh it again before payment.
“We started planning in late 2019 and it got massively delayed with the craziness of 2020 and how busy the spud hut became,” said Mrs Smith.
“We are so grateful for the support our business has had from the community this past year and we will be keeping the Spud Hut open at Cairnton. We renovated an old building for it and like the Spud Hut, we used as much from around the farm as we could.
“We’ve used tattie boxes dating back to the 1960s and chitting trays from the 1970s and Hadden Joinery Company custom built our units and displays out of these old items.
“It’s been so rewarding seeing this old building come back to life. Its first job on the farm was a house for our breeding pigs in the 1980s.”
Open seven days a week from 10am to 6pm, Mrs Smith said Farm to Table aims to help people reduce both plastic and food waste.
She says by shopping with containers, customers are more inclined to just purchase what they need, rather than buy too much which sometimes leads to food being thrown out.
“We have always been very passionate about reducing waste and working as ‘greenly’ as we can,” added Ms Smith.
“We have invested heavily in renewables over the last five years at the farm and looked at our practices and how we can do better.
“After the roaring success of the Spud Hut we decided to inject our passion into our customer-facing part of the business.”
Not only is there a range of items to enjoy from the refillery station, there’s also produce including fish, chicken, frozen beef, pastries and more available to browse at the store, ensuring customers can pick up plenty of ingredients to cook up a range of healthy meals at home.
With food miles in mind when purchasing goods, Mrs Smith says it is important for the public to remember that the UK is based on seasonal growing and while they have produce all year round, some items may come from further afield to meet demand.
“Food miles have also been in the spotlight and we want to introduce people to food transparency – knowing exactly where their food comes from and how it’s produced,” said Mrs Smith.
“We have dedicated a lot of space to our home-grown vegetables – we are expanding the patch this year to include a lot more, and have two polytunnels to allow us to extend our season and try some more exotic produce.”
She said any vegetables they can’t grow on the farm are sourced from other suppliers, including local veg merchant Turriffs in Montrose.
“All our veg is plastic-free and unwashed which extends its shelf life, and we will be offering pickyour-own vegetables this year to allow customers to take them from the farm to their table,” said Mrs Smith.
“We sell peppers which are from Spain at this time of year and think it is important for our customers to know their food’s journey.
“It is important customers are aware that there is certain produce we can’t provide from local growers at certain times of year – so it’s about making the best choice from what’s available.”
She added: “British veg season is about to kick off and we will aim to get most of our fresh produce from UK producers – mainly our home-grown veg.
“To showcase our produce more, we will also be running our pumpkin patch events from Farm to Table in the future and have more events in the pipeline this year.”